IreneD and WickseyWe have been reading about drinking too much water just recently and it seems the body can reach a crisis point but before you get to that, keep up with average salt intake and counter-balance with bananas - good potassium intake - which help to sort out conflict with the sodium contained in the salt.

You start to realize when you have had insufficient salt long time before it turns into a crisis (you will start to feel reluctant to drink water) and most will never get to that point here in Spain because the food is very salty and there is salt in beer and soft drinks. The problems start when you work outdoors and only drink water or you make all your food yourself and never add salt.

We rarely eat out and I do make most things myself although do buy some ready-made things like quiches for instance which will contain salt. I eat cheese which is salty, but sometimes I do realise that we've had practically a whole day of meals with little salt intake (if I do a home-cooked chicken and salad with homemade dressing for instance, and I bake my own bread which only has 1 1/4 tsp in a whole loaf, so not much there either). We don't seem to have to exert ourselves much to come out in a sweat, which is why I am also drinking the rehydration fluids to replace the salts we lose.

Today we have thick cloud cover in Huelva province, which should be a nice change, except that at 32º and rising it is unbearably stuffy and humid outside, so still retreating inside. Thank goodness for the Vuelta bike race to nod off in front of in the afternoons. Off to the pool for a quick dip, then salad again for lunch, then TV siesta! Used to complain in the UK in the winter of becoming a mole, with no daylight .... becoming a bit mole-like here in the summer with all the shutters shut!

We say that we go into a summer hibernation mode here. At least in the winter you can put on your coat and scarf and go out even if it's a miserable cold day, but the heat is very restricting to many of us. We certainly could not go for a walk or do any exercise much in these temperatures.

Hi gasman - I have recently discovered we need 4,700 mg of potassium a day and 1,500 mg of sodium (amongst other minerals etc, of course). Bananas are a good source and luckily, potassium is in plenty of other food, so I make sure I get enough. It's interesting, isn't it? The different balance of vitamins and minerals we need to keep healthy. In my next life, I'd like to be a nutritionist

Having hypothyroidism also means that often vitamins and minerals are not absorbed well from food and I was deficient in Vit B12 (a surprisingly important vitamin), Vit D and Magnesium, so I take supplements in those too. Vit B12 is water soluble and I've had to up my dose as I think I was washing it all away with all the water I've been drinking. I do feel a bit better for it now but did feel quite ill for a couple of weeks.

Wicksey, I'm hypothyroid, too after my hemithyroidectomy a few years ago. It would be interesting to get my vitamin levels checked - I did get vitamin D checked just before the Summer and it was OK. Hopefully, after such a hot Summer, it's better than OK - I do try to spend a very few minutes in the sun, most days. Be careful not to take too high a dose of vitamin D - it can interfere with your calcium, depositing it where you don't want it. I joined the Magnesium Advocacy group a while ago on facebook as I was having 3 or 4 aura migraines a month and heard magnesium could help. (Fortunately for me transdermal magnesium does seem to have helped a lot - unless it's just co-incidence, but my migraines are very few and far between now).

Morley Robbins (who started the group) has some pretty radical ideas about supplementing where most vitamins and minerals are concerned - mostly, he's very anti taking supplements.... he's on t'internet as well, check him out, although his ideas are incredibly complicated.

We've gone off track, topic-wise...... but it's my thread so I can do what I like. Or maybe not lol.

We've gone off track, topic-wise...... but it's my thread so I can do what I like. Or maybe not lol.

Yes you have. Please keep the off topic medical stuff to PM or start another thread.

Ref the Gib weather Facebook page, it does has some interesting stuff, but it is a bit lacking in its longer term forecasts. To be fair, it doesn't set out to be a competitor to all the 10 day forecast companies, but their discussions about weather patterns etc are very good indeed. I will keep checking it.

Meteogib also have a website. This is a good chart for cloud and rain. Moving the blue orb takes you along, daily, as far as September 5 . The dates are top left above the chart (took me a while to figure out the point of moving the orb along the track!)

A handful of drops on and off all morning/afternoon but now the sky is clearing and the humidity has rocketed. Sat here drenched.yuck!. Loving the forecast for next week though. Down to 17 through the night. I will need my duvet back out! If you had told me back in the uk id look forward to the rain and cloud i would have called you crazy

Totally agree with others its the same as the uk but at the other end of the scale.there you close the curtains put on the t v and dont go out cause its cold and wet.here you shut everything up put the tv on and cant go out cause its to hot.

The suspense is getting to me! I put my washing out at about 3 then half an hour later brought it in again, as it started to rain and thunder was rolling around the hills. No sooner had I brought it in than the rain stopped and it's been very hot and humid since. I just can't wait for a good downpour, no sign of it at the moment, though!